The agricultural and other industries often make use of processes for conveying fluid from a pressurized fluid source through a fluid-dispensing sprinkler. In a conventional process, fluid pressurized by a pump is conveyed from a supply pipe through a riser assembly and expelled through a sprinkler. Various means for controlling expulsion of fluid through a sprinkler have been utilized. Fluid expulsion may be controlled using a control valve associated with the sprinkler, a control valve associated with the riser assembly, or a control valve associated with an intermediate connector between the riser assembly and the sprinkler. A wire or other signal carrier may convey a signal to a signal processor that may then process the signal and influence movement of the control valve to control fluid expelled.
The installation, maintenance, removal, and transport of a conventional riser assembly may present a number of challenges. Particularly with riser assemblies used with high-output directional sprinklers, a first set of challenges may arise from the significant and potentially-destabilizing forces that may be exerted upon the riser assembly during expulsion of fluid through the sprinkler. This challenge may be compounded where such forces may be exerted from varying angular or lateral directions as, for example, in the case of a riser assembly used with a powerful rotary sprinkler.
Another set of challenges may arise from temperature variations, precipitation, and other environmental conditions encountered in the often-rugged outdoor settings where a riser assembly may be used. These environmental conditions may pose a challenge not only to the riser assembly itself but, additionally, to functional elements operatively connectable with the riser assembly and, for example, to wires and other signal carriers, signal processors, and control valves.
Past approaches to address the foregoing challenges have been proposed. One such approach involves the burial of all or most of the riser assembly in soil or other ground material. In addition to burial of the riser assembly in the ground, approaches for stabilizing a riser assembly include encasement of the riser assembly within a concrete pier or attachment of the riser assembly to materials that either are not removable or are not easily removable without damaging the riser assembly. Such attempts to stabilize riser assemblies have typically resulted in assemblies that are (1) complicated, difficult, expensive, and time consuming to install and maintain, and (2) complicated, difficult, expensive, or even impossible to remove, transport, and reinstall. For example, installation of such conventional risers often requires digging, drilling, cutting, grinding, beveling, welding, screwing, gluing, tarring, and pouring concrete. This often requires the use of numerous man hours and varying types of tools and pieces of equipment. Where conventional risers are secured using poured concrete, in particular, the concrete often needs to be allowed to solidify before the riser can be utilized, and breaking apart the concrete to try to remove the conventional riser can lead to damage to the riser itself.
Conventional risers may include one or more inlets and one or more outlets through which water or another fluid may be passed into and out of, respectively, the riser. However, once passed into the riser, the riser may not be configured to allow water to be selectively dispensed for practical use through other than the sprinkler dispenser (also referred to herein as a “sprinkler head”) or a drain outlet. Therefore, the riser may occupy a water source for a sole purpose, i.e., for dispensing through the sprinkler dispenser, and the water source may not be otherwise utilized without removing the riser assembly or without significant modification to the riser assembly.
Likewise, for riser assemblies to which power is supplied, a conventional riser assembly may not be configured to allow the power to be utilized outside of the riser system, even when the riser assembly is not utilizing its full power source.